How do I stop the cat from scratching my leather sofa?
By Margaret Gibson from London, England
I had the same problem on my fabric couch. I tried everything from sprays to covering it with sticky tape. My cat even goes outside and would come in to scratch. One thing I learned is that you need to keep their claws trimmed which is why they scratch. I tried all different kinds of scratching posts till I found the one that works for her.
By Rose Smith
I would try this, it may or may not work depending on her personality and style.
First get a catnip toy and put it next to the cat scratch post. Call the cat.
Have a bag of yummy treats, hot dog pieces that are no bigger than the size of a pencil eraser or smaller or some other treat like you can buy at stores that come in small pieces in bags.
Put the catnip toy in front of the cat's nose and then onto the cat scratch post so that it is on the top laying down. (the toy). When she goes over to investigate it, make a clicking sound with your mouth and throw a bit of the hot dog over to her.
At this point you will see whether this will work or not. She will either eat the hot dog and then come over to you for more or go on about her business and you can keep pitching hot dogs to her whenever she is close to the cat scratch post or when she goes near it. If she comes to you, lead her to the post and when she is near it, click and throw a piece by the scratch post.
If she runs to you for the treats, you go to the post. When she gets near or sniffs the post by accident, then click your mouth and throw a treat down by the post. This can happen as many times as you want it to. If the cat gets good at sniffing the post then wait for her to touch it almost with her head or paw and then reward. If she won't, hold the hot dog piece next to the post and when she sniffs it click and treat.
Always follow a mouth click with a treat. This is really fun to do with dogs and I was wondering if it would work really well with cats. Hope this has helped.
I know that dogs and cats need 30 or more repetitions in order to learn, so it takes a lot of work so why not have fun doing it with clicker training?
Robyn
(04/28/2009)
By Robyn Fed
Clip your cat's nails with fingernail clippers if possible. Try placing foil on the area that they are scratching on as well. (04/29/2009)
By Janis Bowen
I discovered this many years ago and it has always worked. Spray the area that your cat is scratching with very inexpensive perfume. It will stop immediately as they do not like the taste when licking their paws. I have been using this for 35 years and have not found a cat yet that continued to scratch my furniture. I hope this helps you too. (05/03/2009)
There are caps you can glue onto the front claws to blunt them (and they come in wild colors). Google it. (05/05/2009)
Every day rub catnip, fresh or dry, on the scratching post and take the cat to it. Play with him a bit and then let him enjoy the catnip. It's a bit messy, but eventually you can stop doing this. A few of our cats, would eat the catnip. Although, I did own one cat that didn't have any interest in catnip.
You can grow catnip in a container in the house. They absolutely loved fresh catnip. Our cats never bothered it when it was in the pot. It seems that when I would pick off the leaves and crush them, was when they went after it.
To keep dogs and cats from furniture and such, use Vicks Vapor Rub. Apply a bit to foil, and devise a way to place it on or near wherever or whatever you want the pet to avoid. They hate this smell as well as some people. So after awhile, when you feel your pet is broken from its bad habit, you can then remove the Vicks Vapor Rub.
For training purposes, we used this on a frisky young Rottweiler puppy. We applied some to the back of our hands and when he would misbehave, we would calmly walk over to him, and matter-of-factly, put our hand near him and firmly say no. We didn't wave our hand, just got close enough. Since dogs have a strong sense of smell, this worked great for us. (05/06/2009)
By it's.only.me
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